So we went to Anuradhapura and came back within the space of 2 days... I believe Anuradhapura was the first city that had advertisements on road blocks... starting off with those earth-filled barrels with the "Siddhalepa" logo on them... one of my mom's old suddha bosses had once said that Sri Lanka is the only country in the world that he had seen sponsored checkpoints in... hmmm :)
So, I reprised my role as the family map-man, the guy who takes all the heat when he misreads a map and says "left" instead of "right" you know? I was like pretending to eat all the way upto Anuradhapura since I still have trouble with left right... hehe ;)
Ritigala
So on our way back, saw in the distance Mihinthale, and I thought it was Ritigala so... and Thathi tells me that it's not, and points at a large grey blob in the distance... So Ritigala... we meet again!
I remember how so many years ago, when we went to Anuradhapura, the family had decided to go to Ritigala... I had got into a fight with Ammi that day and I refused to go, opting instead to stay with my little cousin malla and my aunt... so they went! without me! and the little backstabber totally went to sleep (he was 2 years old or something... but still!) and so I was left jobless and sulking the whole day... hmph!
Last year we were passing Ritigala on the Maradankadawala-Habarana road... and it was freaking Ginormous!!! You couldn't believe that a mountain of that size could exist smack in the middle of the plains of the dry zone! It was truly surreal, and the fact that I missed out on such a beauty kinda dawned on me... :(
So Ritigala, mate... I shall climb you someday! and since they say you're a part of the Himalayas, that'd be as good as me climbing Everest! Someday mate, someday!
Footnote: I'm trying out a new Flickr account since my Picasa account kinda killed itself when I switched my Google account... :S why couldn't it be more supportive, like its sisters Analytica and Blogga... even Reada is so easy to set up... I dunno Picasa... you really broke my heart! :P (This Flickr account has since been deleted. The photos from the trip can be seen here)
Footnote 2: Thank goodness for Blogger autosaving the post... MAAAN! the power just went (so did my UPS!) and I was like *sheeeet* :D
Footnote 3: sorry for being a whiny self-pitying sorry ass in the last few days... I have realized that I'm just 18 and if I don't make mistakes now and learn from them, I'll end up making them when I really can't afford to... Really really sorry if I freaked you (yes YOU!!! over there on the corner mister!) out... :)
Very interesting and amusing post. =D
ReplyDeleteoh and Wish you best of luck with your endeavor of hiking the Mt. Everest-like-Ritigala someday! lol BTW the youngest guy to climb the Everest was also 18.. right? =D
I think I've seen those peaks but gotta go again to refresh my old memories.
PS: Like how many a/cs you maintain altogether? O_O
PPS: yep, blogger's auto saving IS a lifesaver. hehe..
Harumi: Thank you! :D I'm glad you liked it... :)
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about an 18 year old guy climbing Everest... *runs off to google* ;)
Yep, Sri Lanka is blessed with so many natural wonders (as Kirigalpoththa always reminds us) and its a treat to go out and enjoy the environment... :)
Just 2 accounts... one I've had for 3 years (my Gmail account) and the other I created when I became a blogger... now I have only one account since I deleted the new account... if that makes sense... :D hehe
lol, you seemed to have had a similar experience with autosave... :D
Thanks for the comment Harumi! :)
*Comes out from the corner*
ReplyDeleteOk, you're forgiven, but stop calling me mister.
:D
Forget climbing mountains man, I'm thinking, helicopter-land onto a mountain and then BUNGEE JUMP off it. BAHAHAHAA! XD
Maks: lol, sorry for calling you mister and sorry for freaking you out! ;) hehe :D
ReplyDeleteummm... you know, they do bungee jump off bridges for a reason? ;) Imagine going face-first into one of those enormous granite cliffs... *ouch* ;) :D
I would like to skydive one day though... :D :D (hope noone sabotages my parachute! lol) ;)
u went on a trip??
ReplyDeleteMe jealous!
:P
Nice.. Never heard of Ritigala before..
Lady D: awwww! hehe :D
ReplyDeletewell, Ritigala is kinda tucked away, and media coverage of it is low because most of it is a strict natural reserve, meaning that even a researcher, from say a Uni, can't get access without permission...
It's said in folklore that Hanuman brought a piece of the Himalayas to Sri Lanka during the Rama-Ravana conflict and that a part of that fell to Ritigala, and another to Rumassala, in Galle... Some of the plants in Ritigala aren't found anywhere else in Sri Lanka, so that's why it's so heavily protected... :)
you're welcome. oh and by the way the youngest, according to google, is a 15 year older! O_O and he's a Sherpa too, so ya, a born climber. ^__^
ReplyDeleteoh ya, KGP's blog is very educational. Wish our schools had organized more trips to show the beauty of Lanka instead of spoonfeeding us on geography. -__- *I totally hated drawing samochcha rekha* lol
oops! sorry, I was actually referring to the long list of names you mentioned in your 1st footnote. hehe..
Yep, it happens all the time, even while I'm working too! something's wrong with my UPS. -__-
PS: wow that's a nice description you gave for LD. I too have heard of that story. Hope to go there sometime, esp. Rumassala.
Harumi: oooh a Sherpa... yep, it amazes me how they climb while carrying all that weight! :S
ReplyDeleteyep, need more trips... in my entire school life I had been on only 5, and the last one was not an educational trip but a fun trip to a hotel where we chilled! :D lol @ samochcha rekha... ;)
oooh, those are the stuff that you get in your Google account, GMail, Google reader and Analytics etc. :D
yea... the battery on your UPS must be dead... we replaced the battery on ours and still it goes off sometimes (but stays on on other occasions... strange! hehe)
Thanks! :D Yep, I haven't visited Rumassala either... definitely should go sometime... :)
Hey guys!! =)
ReplyDelete@ Chavie : sorry men, can't blog coz my office has blocked blogger!! yep, can u blv ths??? %$%@#$* =( most days I get home @10 after classes so don't really feel like passing out by the screen =)sorry people, I can't even read "Londonlanka" =( u guys will jst hv to hang around until saturday...
=( ='(
Ritigala is a unique place as you get tropical wet vegetation in the middle of dry zone.
ReplyDeleteIn additon some of the flora found there is indigenous to Ritigala.
More than reasons to believe Hanuman story :)
TSC: O_O #%$@%#^$%#*$ indeed! should smack the admin's head into a server or something! ;) Do you work at a place where a lot of people blog? If not, I'm pretty sure that creep is behind this! :@
ReplyDeletewill wait till Saturday patiently now... :)
Kirigalpoththa: Yes... It is unique... also the massive size of it is almost gravity defying... no wonder the Hanuman story grew up around it... (that is, if indeed it wasn't true in the first place... hehe)
Thanks for the comments guys! :)
Ya ne.. I actually feel sorry for them being used like that just for hard labor.
ReplyDeleteonly 5 trips? trips organized by school or your family? or both? I've gone 3 trips from my secondary school + another to Colombo for a competition, which too was like a trip.
And I remember in one of those trips, we sang on top of our voices.. right in the middle of a bustling street in Colombo, *can't recall where exactly though* freaking out every soul in a kilometer radius! O_O hehe.. Our teachers were there too but they couldn't do a thing to stop us. =D
Really? I'll check them the next time I login to Gmail.
Oops! Dead???? O_O That means I've to buy a new one.. This one is about 2+ yrs old so I didn't expect it to die this soon.. Geez.. but it doesn't look dead at all.. cuz it still has that green LED on. =D oh really? that is strange. There might be a ghost in your UPS then! =D
Ya, definitely.. and as soon as you do, don't forgetta blog about it. ^__^
Harumi: yep... like human mules isn't it? but I guess they don't really mind, they've been doing it for thousands of years...
ReplyDeleteI meant school trips... I've traveled quite a lot with my family since my mom used to work for an NGO and she used to take us to all the areas where they were doing projects and stuff... :) haha yall did that?! whoa crazy stuff!!! :D and do you live in Kandy town or an outlying area?
check them, for example Analytics lets you see how many hits your blog gets and from where... very useful if you're a spy or something! ;)
Yesh, UPS batteries last about 2~3 years... the green LED will work but the battery won't charge, so when the lights go out your UPS will too... kinda loses it's purpose... hehe ;)
well, I'll definitely blog about it if I manage to make it! :D
Thousands of years? O_O I didn't know that. The only thing I know about them is that they usually live in a much higher altitude than the ones approved. And I once read in Vidusara paper that they have evolved further than us homo sapiens sapiens.. to withstand the low air pressure, lack of oxygen and freezing climate. It also said that their life span is much higher in general, that some people might be over 120 yrs but they don't even know that! O_O
ReplyDeleteWow.. lucky you! I haven't gone much family trips either.. unless you could count in official trips with my parents like in your case plus a few pilgrimages. =D
Ya.. just one group started it and the rest just went on with the flow! lol Totally crazy.. and highly embarrassing too. lol But we wouldn't dare to do it in our hometown though. =D
Me? I'm kinda living in the outskirts of Kandy city.. like about 4-5 km away. But at a position where we can still hear the drums of Esala Perahera. =D
Really? oh but my stat counters already do that ne. But then again I installed them kinda late so the data isn't totally accurate. Anyway that's a cool idea.. I love spying and detective work! so gotta check it out. lol
That's not fair ne. Ya I guess I have to do something about it. Thanks Chavie. and sure.
@Harumi: Ooops, I meant like climbing for thousands of years, of course carrying weight is an extra burden and would even be hazardous in the dangerous icy climate up there... wow, I didn't know that they live such a long life... :S
ReplyDeleteYep, was truly lucky... we got to visit some of the most amazing historical/natural places of interest in the island...
Hehe, of course you wouldn't do it in your hometown! unless you wanted people coming and telling your parents what delinquents yall were! hehe :D ;) ;)
cool! my father's from there... Mulgampola... :)
Lol, it's much better than stat counters... gives much more detailed info, tells you where you're getting traffic from and which pages are most popular and gives a graph of blog hits against time... :)
I KNOWWW! UPS's are a total ripoff! :(
Thanks for the comment Harumi! :)
oh.. that's why.. =D yep, for sure.
ReplyDeleteReally..? that's nice.
True..! and worst we were in our uniforms at that time! lol so obviously not in our hometown. hehe..
Oh that's nice. It's a lil close to my mom's hometown.
You know.. I do get all that from my stat counter ne! lol I looked up that analytics thingy, but couldn't find it on my blog.. -__-
hehe.. for sure. =D
you're welcome. ^__^
hey Harumi, here's the link to analytics:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.com/analytics/home/?hl=en-GB
It doesn't really display on your blog, but once you set it up you'd realize how useful it can be... :)
and lol at the uniform bit... You must've been glad it was Colombo and only a few would've recognized your school no? :D
Thanks for the comment Harumi! :)